For simple data such as music, videos, pictures, etc. I simply copy to another partition and/or external storage device.

For my overall distro backup IMO there is nothing better than Clonezilla. I do a Clonezilla backup of my installations every Sunday. Because I like to tinker, borking my installation, though rare, does occasionally happen. I don't have to stress out because I can put it back just the way it was.

I recently bought a 2 terabyte external hard drive to make backup images on, and I've been using partclone to make those images. Previously I used to only backup my personal data (videos, music, documents, etc.) since I didn't have enough backup disk space to do full image backups. In the future I will likely end up using a mixture of partition images and loose files when I begin to run out of space on my computer's built-in drive.

I have all 'generic' data (videos, music, documents, etc.) held on a separate data server. I run links to that server from each user's home folder ( permissions and group names are centrally controlled). That data server has a daily backup schedule to external drives using rsync scripts through cron.

On each machine each user has a 'luckybackup' profile (excluding symlinks) to an external drive they run whenever they like (usually weekly) and I keep a Clonezilla copy of each distro immediately post install/setup and after any major upgrade. Usually running/supporting 4-6 distros at a time.

I NEVER tinker with my primary user stuff until it has been tested & works in my 'test' user. Never had a "bork" that I couldn't recover from caused by me! The server once ran uptime of over 4 years (until I changed the motherboard).

rhodry.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to dance in the rain.

I like to use external media, and generally just drag and drop. I used to use a CentOS file server, and had my files rsync across the local network, but the electricity it consumed was just too much for what it did. Picked up two cheap 2TB hard drives and back up to those (only to one drive, and rsync that drives contents to the other drive).

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I prefer to use manual command line tools like tar rsync and compression utilites.I'm fascinated by GNU Linux in and of itself. I'm an 18 month Linux Noob (wish I got into this Linux thing 20 years ago!) and want to learn as much as I can about the lower level nuts and bolts of Linux without actually loading up a C Compiler. Yet.

GNU Linux is the OS I've always wanted and dreamed about since around 1984 when I was a Commodore 64 8 Bit noob.